κόττος

Ancient Greek

Of unclear origin:

Beekes derives the word from κοττῐ́ς (kottís, “hairdress with long hair on the forehead”), as the crests of chickens resemble such hairstyles.^[1]
Masica considers the word as a Dravidian borrowing, and suggests either Old Tamil 𑀓𑁄𑀵𑀺 (kōḻi) or Old Telugu కోడి (kōḍi) as the source.^[2] As chickens were first domesticated in Southeast Asia and potentially passed through South Asia before arriving in Western Eurasia, this is plausible; however, the word for "chicken" in other Mediterranean languages used for sea trade (including presumably Phoenician and Etruscan) does not resemble that of the Greek or Dravidian forms, casting doubt on the theory.

κόττος • (kóttos) n (indeclinable)

Declension of τὸ κόττος; τοῦ κόττος (Attic)

Case / #	Singular
Nominative	τὸ κόττος tò kóttos
Genitive	τοῦ κόττος toû kóttos
Dative	τῷ κόττος tôi kóttos
Accusative	τὸ κόττος tò kóttos
Vocative	κόττος kóttos
Notes:	This table gives Attic inflectional endings. For declension in other dialects, see Appendix:Ancient Greek dialectal declension.

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) “κοττίς, -ίδος”, in Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 762
^ Masica, Colin, Aryan and Non-Aryan in India, p.125